By day, he’s a mild-mannered 22-year old, but when J.J. McCarthy puts on his Minnesota Vikings uniform and steps onto the football field, he becomes “Nine,” an intense, football-throwing machine. Apparently.
After a video of McCarthy looking, well, possessed in Minnesota’s postgame locker room went viral, the second-year quarterback explained how his alter ego has helped him lock in this season.
"For me, I call him, 'Nine,' McCarthy said. "Nine comes out, and I got to understand, like, 'OK, he can't be at his peak performance throughout three and a half hours.' So how do I find little ways on the sideline to get back to my breath, get back to my visualization, that can kind of maintain that intense competitive stamina throughout the whole game. But yeah, it's just the pure will and determination to get the job done."
The name Nine of course references McCarthy’s playing number, and its existence is a rather recent development that resulted from a rookie year spent on the sideline with a torn meniscus.
"To be honest with you, it really kind of started to show up this year," McCarthy said. "It came about last year during IR. I just never had a full season where you want to be out there so freaking bad, but you can't. It was just this built up anger that was kind of ready to just explode. And I chose to harness it, instead of letting it go into a self destructive kind of way, and it's unique.
“And I kind of love feeding that wolf, because my entire life at Michigan, it was a smiley face on my hand and smile, and, 'If you have fun, you're gonna play better and all that,' which is true. But I also think there's a lot of power that comes from that built-up anger that you can transmute into your performance."
Channeling “Nine” has worked for McCarthy so far this season. The Vikings are 2-1 in games that he’s started, and he’s fresh off of a three-touchdown performance in Minnesota’s 27-24 victory over the Detroit Lions. There’s obviously still a lot left to prove for both McCarthy and Nine, but there is certainly reason for optimism.
But, while the intensity helps on the field, once the game is over, McCarthy has to make sure to abandon his alter ego for the time being.
“My fiancée definitely doesn’t like when ‘Nine’ comes home,” McCarthy said. “She does a great job keeping me level-headed and understanding there's the football player, and then there's the fiancé, father part of me that I obviously got to make priority 1A, 1B in both areas.”
We’ll get a chance to see Nine come out again on Sunday when the Vikings host the Baltimore Ravens in what promises to be a tough battle.